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Kruja one of the biggest cities in Northern Albania is a city of 'History' .You come into Kruja (pronounced: Kru-yah) past age-old olive trees and lime-kilns, with
limestone outcrops offering the barest grazing to a few sheep and
goats. Then shrubs and oaks replace the olives, and finally the
conifers take over. "Kruj‘" means 'Spring' and of course there is
no shortage of fresh water at these cool heights. The air
invigorates you after the hot, humid plain of Tirana, and one can
easily imagine why the old Ilyrian settlement of Zg‘rdhesh was
abandoned in the forth century.
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The ecclesiastical record of the ninth century mentioned Kruja as
a bishop's see. The byzantine held the city up to c.1190, when the
first Albanian feudal state was declared at Kruja under the archon
Progon (1190-8). Albania survived throughout the rule of Progon's
son Gjin (1198-1206) and Dhimitrit (1206-16), but in 1216 it fell
under the sway of Epiros, in 1230 under Bulgarians, and in 1240
again under Epiros. Foreign invaders continue to fight over the
dying body of a torn and bleeding Albania until an Ottoman garrison
was permanently stationed at Kruj‘ in 1415.
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The youngest of Gjon Kastrioti's four sons, Gjergj, was sent with
his three brothers as a hostage to the Sultan at Constantinople in
1415. He impressed his tutors at the military school he attended
and they gave him the title 'Skender-beg' for the valour on the
field of battle. Then in 1443 he suddenly left the Ottoman army
fighting Hunyadi, the Hungarian Hero and returned to Albania. As
the Turks retreated near Nish on 3 November 1443, Gjergj withdrew
his nephew Hamza and 300 Albanian horsemen and headed for Dib‘r and
then Kruja.
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The citadel of Kruja became the scene of one of Europe's most
titanic struggles. In May 1450 the Ottoman Sultan Murad II set out
from Constantinople with a hundred thousand men to crush once and
for all the Albanian army which had been united since 1444 by
Skenderbeg's personal recruiting campaign. He aimed to storm the
citadel of Kruja and to hold the Albanian country side with Kruja as
a capital. Skenderbeg's personal magnetism ensured that those
Albanians fit to take up arms were armed and ready for combat, a
total of 17,500 at the most, who were thus outnumbered by five to
one.
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[Things to See
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Skenderbeg divided his troops into three bands. Fifteenhundred led by Count Uran were provisioned to withstand the siege
within the citadel itself. The two major forces of 8 000 each were split up, the first under Skenderbeg to harry the near of the
Ottoman army once it had encamped below Kruja, and the other forming small bands of guerrilleros to ambush, raid, and snipe at
the Turkish caravan on its cumbersome trail from Macedonia. Since Murad II realised that his troops would mutiny if ordered to
withstand the hostile winter encamped in a trap below Kruja, after four and a half months he retreated with loses estimated at more
than twenty thousand - that is exceeding the strength of the whole Albanian army. Ragusa congratulated Skenderbeg, "Magnificus et
Potens" on his stupendous victory.
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Ragusa congratulated Skenderbeg, "Magnificus et Potens" on his stupendous victory.
Kruja under the direction of Skenderbeg defeated the turkish army lead by the Sultan Mehmet etc. For a quarter of a century. As the
British military strategist Wolfe has said Skenderbeg surpassed 'all the captains, both ancient and modern, in his ability to lead
a small defensive army' . After the death of Skenderbeg from natural causes in 1468, the citadel of Kruja defeated the Turks for more
then ten years under the direction of Lek‘ Dugagjin till at 16 june 1478 when it fell definitively to the Sultan Mehmet.
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